Ethereal (music)
| Ethereal wave | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Ethereal goth |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Early 1980s, United Kingdom |
| Derivative forms | |
| Other topics | |
Ethereal wave, also called ethereal darkwave,ethereal goth or simply ethereal, is a subgenre of dark wave music and is variously described as "gothic", "romantic", and "otherworldly". Developed in the early 1980s in the UK as an outgrowth of gothic rock, ethereal was mainly represented by 4AD bands such as Cocteau Twins and early guitar-driven Dead Can Dance.
In the second half of the 1980s, the genre continued to develop in the United States and was primarily associated with C'est La Mort Records that featured artists such as Area (later The Moon Seven Times) and Heavenly Bodies – a band formed by ex-members of Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil.
In the mid-1980s, several Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil records have been described as "ethereal","etherealism", and "ethereal romanticism". In September 1988, Staci Bonner of Reflex magazine described the music of British label 4AD as "gothically ethereal". Print media in the U.S., such as Alternative Press,Billboard, and Option music magazine, started using the term "ethereal goth" more frequently, whereas European music magazines, primarily German zines such as Glasnost, Aeterna, Entry, Black, and Astan, had named the genre "ethereal wave" in the same vein as new wave, dark wave, and cold wave.
Historically, the term was mostly applied to the roster of 4AD label − not only referring to music but also regarding aesthetics of the graphical visualization.
“Known for its slick, gauzy package design and quasi-Gothic bands invariably described as "Ethereal" (q.v. Cocteau Twins), the label did have an unpredictable streak.”
– Ben Sisario, The Pixies' Doolittle
The "ethereal" designation has been taken over by authors such as Mick Mercer and Dave Thompson to delineate the same musical phenomenon in their books, while Simon Reynolds began using the term "Goth-lite" (or "post-Goth", a term he coined in 1987) to describe the music of Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and related 4AD artists.
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